Thanks for writing up this report! We're eager to learn from this experience and get the new hiring process up and running.
Here are some of our major takeaways:
* Being ready to move forward when we publish job posting: 3 months passed from the time that the job was posted until the time SFC received the finalized information and questions for candidates from the HC. Now having the questions ready will better prepare us for quick follow ups.
* Adding more resources: I added another few weeks of delay in emailing out the questions to candidates, so that took us even further from the job posting, the result of both delays were that many of the candidates were no longer available. SFC now has an Operations Manager, Tracy, who will run this process.
* Keeping tasks as manageable as possible: Karen still advises against anonymizing the resumes prior to the first round of questions. Ideally, the answers to the questions will be kept anonymous by the candidates and SFC will only have to take off identifying information when sending them to HC for evaluation. Resumes can be reviewed after assessing the replies to the questions and identifying the strongest candidates.
* Having a wider list of communities to advertise the posting to from the get go, making a plan for promotion. Here's a list from Sage Sharp of Outreachy we can use next time:
"She Code Africa: https://shecodeafrica.org/jobs/
Blacks in Technology: https://www.blacksintechnology.net/jobs-board/
People of Color in IT: https://www.pocitjobs.com/
American Indian Science and Engineering Society: https://careers.aises.org/
Diversify Tech. Note that the jobs board has very strict rules around only posting technical jobs. They will also ask you questions about your organization's current diversity, and what you have done to make your organization more inclusive. https://www.diversifytech.co/post-a-job/
Techfugees. Note that most refugees supported by this organization are looking for full-time employment, not internships, but longer-term contractor positions might be interesting to them: https://techfugees.com/jobs/
Women Who Code: https://www.womenwhocode.com/jobs"
* Laying out a clear timeline so all parties have the same expectations of the timeframe. Keep in mind that it is not unusual for especially nonprofits to have long hiring timelines. It's not ideal, but some famous 501c3 organizations are known for taking 3 or 4 months before contacting applicants the first time.
As mentioned above, having our Operations Manager take over the process in the future with clearer timelines will enable better management of expectations and more prompt responses to allow a better flow of information. When the project decides they want to reengage on this venture, we'll connect you directly with Tracy, and have her join the PLC and HC meetings. She will also be able to help with promotion of the posting to a wider audience.
Martin's report also asks for clarification of the legal relationship between the PLC, SFC and the hiring process. Because SFC is Inkscape's legal entity, all contractors are contractors of SFC, and we look to Inkscape for approval to hire the contractor and the budget. We partner with our member projects to design how this process works but so long as SFC has the confidence that the work is in mission for the org and that the resources are being reasonably spent without creating any conflicts or benefiting any individual or company unduly https://sfconservancy.org/projects/policies/conflict-of-interest-policy.html..., there are a variety of ways that could work out. At the end of the day, the contractor signs an agreement with SFC and it is SFC who reviews the invoices and makes payment. We require that contractors provide detailed reports of their work and almost always expect that to be done publicly too so that there's a transparency and accountablility to the community (links to examples: https://chris-lamb.co.uk/posts/free-software-activities-in-august-2022#repro... , https://anna.flourishing.stream/series/outreachy-reports/). Based on what we previous discussed at the meeting, SFC planned to help manage this contractor to assist the PLC and community make sure that they were on track. We expected to finalize how that would work out in futher discussions with the PLC.
Whenever you are all ready to pick this up again, we'll be excited to help! -Pono on behalf of Software Freedom Conservancy
On Sat, Sep 03, 2022 at 09:58:57PM -0400, doctormo@gmail.com wrote:
Dear Inkscape PLC,
Attached is the report directly from the hiring comittee, it contains a full detailed account of what happened, the steps everyone took and some recomendations for us in the PLC to consider.
Please do read the full report. It's not very long, but I think it contains a great deal of thoughtful information from our volunteer hiring comittee members.
My own additional recommendations is that the project not persue hiring a paid administrator until a HR person be available at the SFC to oversee the process. I do not believe that there was sufficient staffing at the SFC to process the time sensitive elements of this request we made of them. Thus long delays and ultimately starvation of the process.
The PLC may want to publicise this issue further to aid in full project transparency, but please go through the vectors team directly. I don't believe a further meeting is neccessary; The hiring comittee is henceforth disbanded.
And if I'm being honest everyone involved in this process is emotionally spent and we all require time and space to recover.
Best Regards, Martin Owens